a real WMD threat: secret arsenal blackmails the world

Steve Weissman and Herbert Krosney, "The Islamic Bomb: The Nuclear Threat to Israel to Israel and the Middle East," New York: Times Books (1981)
(there's a good chapter about the history of Israel's nukes)

Gulf Challenges US on Iran, Israel
By Sebastian Abbot
The Associated Press

Saturday 08 December 2007

Manama, Bahrain - Gulf Arab countries challenged Defense Secretary Robert Gates on American policies toward Iran and Israel Saturday, after he urged them to force Tehran to stop uranium enrichment.

Several delegates at the regional security conference in Bahrain said U.S. was hypocritical for supporting Israeli nuclear weapons, and questioned Washington's refusal to meet with Iran to discuss the Islamic state's nuclear activities.

"Not considering Israel a threat to security in the region is considered a biased policy that is based on a double standard," said Abdul-Rahman al-Attiyah, the secretary general of the six-nation Gulf Cooperation Council.

Experts have long maintained Israel has nuclear weapons, although the Jewish state refuses to confirm or deny it.

The dissent from Gulf Arab delegates highlights fissures between the United States and its Sunni Muslim allies, despite their wariness of Shiite Iran's growing influence.

Iran decided at the last minute to skip Saturday's meeting, the second day of the conference.

During his speech, Gates stressed the danger of Iran's nuclear program, despite a new U.S. intelligence report earlier this week that said Tehran halted atomic weapons development in 2003 and hasn't resumed it since.

The report was a dramatic reversal from a previous report claiming Iran restarted the program in 2005.

Soon after Gates' speech, the defense secretary was challenged by Bahraini Minister of Labor Majeed al-Alawi, who wanted to know whether Gates thought "the Zionist (Israeli) nuclear weapon is a threat to the region."